Outside the religious motifs, which always bother me in an otherwise good story, as if only one religion has a patent on human empathy or morality, despite what theists might think of this atheist, ME, I do have empathy and I can relate. This OP/ED is going to require a bit of a back story though.
From a very young age I was a fan of the Bugs Bunny/Warner Brothers cartoons. One of the cartoons depicted a pack of dogs about to attack a rival, but it suddenly held up a book titled "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn". Suddenly the dogs turn and run back to Brooklyn. I did not get the joke at the time being a kid.
I have to admit, I cheated stumbling upon the old black and white movie adaptation on TCM. The stern mother in that movie reminded me of my real adoptive mother. My real adoptive father was an alcoholic. Of course my real life wasn't exactly like the movie. The alcoholic dad in the movie was happy, but not abusive. In real life my dad WAS abusive. In real life, my mom ignored it. But even given that, she had her limits. She once yanked me out of the house because he got drunk, and shot his 38 with me in the room. I have to this day, furniture with bullet holes in it resulting from that event.
But what I understand now, that is like the movie, is that my mom was not hard on me because she wanted me to fail. I'd only argue that kids are different and you cant apply your wishes to a kid an treat them like a clone. But I do get the character mother's intent in the movie, just like my real adoptive mother in real life. I am that tree in Brooklyn too, not because I became rich though. Trees do not survive based on class, they survive because they adapt. My late mother was not perfect, and if I could invent a time machine and go back with the knowledge I have now, I would have advised her, "Look mom, I get what you are going after, but life isn't a script either."
When you read the book, or watch the movie like I did, either way, the message is that life is not a script. I think both the mother and daughter as characters in that movie, at least for me, conveyed that idea.The mother in the movie ended up accepting that her late husband wasn't all bad, and the daughter realized that her mom was only trying to do the best she could. That does not match my personal reality though. My dad was abusive to me. But what I did did realize about my late adoptive mother, is that she at least, like the character in the movie, got to the point in her life, to see that life is not a script, and so did the daughter.
The most moving point in that movie for me, was when the mother got pregnant and the daughter was worried about her dying in because they could not afford a hospital. Again, this was not my reality. My real late adoptive mother had great health care being a retired teacher. But even given that, old age gets everyone and our bodies fail regardless of money. I can still identify with the fear of losing a loved one. But unlike me, and my mother, some people do not have the benefit of what my mom did in reality. So if I can worry about her who had the best care, it is sad in the world's richest nation, that we can't extend universal health care to those less fortunate like the mother character in that book/movie.
I did find the ending quite sexist. While the mother first objected to the cop offering his hand in marriage after the death of her late husband, and she said "we don't need your help", she still accepts his hand in marriage. But considering the times it was written in, it was really the only way to introduce society to female empowerment.
From a very young age I was a fan of the Bugs Bunny/Warner Brothers cartoons. One of the cartoons depicted a pack of dogs about to attack a rival, but it suddenly held up a book titled "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn". Suddenly the dogs turn and run back to Brooklyn. I did not get the joke at the time being a kid.
I have to admit, I cheated stumbling upon the old black and white movie adaptation on TCM. The stern mother in that movie reminded me of my real adoptive mother. My real adoptive father was an alcoholic. Of course my real life wasn't exactly like the movie. The alcoholic dad in the movie was happy, but not abusive. In real life my dad WAS abusive. In real life, my mom ignored it. But even given that, she had her limits. She once yanked me out of the house because he got drunk, and shot his 38 with me in the room. I have to this day, furniture with bullet holes in it resulting from that event.
But what I understand now, that is like the movie, is that my mom was not hard on me because she wanted me to fail. I'd only argue that kids are different and you cant apply your wishes to a kid an treat them like a clone. But I do get the character mother's intent in the movie, just like my real adoptive mother in real life. I am that tree in Brooklyn too, not because I became rich though. Trees do not survive based on class, they survive because they adapt. My late mother was not perfect, and if I could invent a time machine and go back with the knowledge I have now, I would have advised her, "Look mom, I get what you are going after, but life isn't a script either."
When you read the book, or watch the movie like I did, either way, the message is that life is not a script. I think both the mother and daughter as characters in that movie, at least for me, conveyed that idea.The mother in the movie ended up accepting that her late husband wasn't all bad, and the daughter realized that her mom was only trying to do the best she could. That does not match my personal reality though. My dad was abusive to me. But what I did did realize about my late adoptive mother, is that she at least, like the character in the movie, got to the point in her life, to see that life is not a script, and so did the daughter.
The most moving point in that movie for me, was when the mother got pregnant and the daughter was worried about her dying in because they could not afford a hospital. Again, this was not my reality. My real late adoptive mother had great health care being a retired teacher. But even given that, old age gets everyone and our bodies fail regardless of money. I can still identify with the fear of losing a loved one. But unlike me, and my mother, some people do not have the benefit of what my mom did in reality. So if I can worry about her who had the best care, it is sad in the world's richest nation, that we can't extend universal health care to those less fortunate like the mother character in that book/movie.
I did find the ending quite sexist. While the mother first objected to the cop offering his hand in marriage after the death of her late husband, and she said "we don't need your help", she still accepts his hand in marriage. But considering the times it was written in, it was really the only way to introduce society to female empowerment.
